Kaplan University offers over 180 degree and certificate programs all available to military, veterans, and spouses of active duty members. In addition, several programs have been developed to complement specific military occupations or programs established by the military.

Open College at Kaplan University (OC@KU) offers individualized, affordable education that integrates technology and personalized service to help learners meet their career, academic, and personal goals.

E-leadership: Leadership in the Twenty-First Century

By Dr. Joel D. Olson, Kaplan University FacultyPublished December 2015

At the turn of the twentieth century, Thomas Edison
suggested that people do not know what to do with the technology they create (1).
Edison proved his own point in 1922 when he predicted that motion pictures
would replace school textbooks (2). Such is the challenge of our time.

Technological
innovations out strip our ability to make good use of it. E-Leadership is about
managing technology and using it to lead, instead of the other way around.

The word “virtual” has been used with increasing frequency.
It is commonly used to describe something that is not actual or factual,
instead it is similar or “almost like” something. When applied to teams, a
common understanding of “virtual” would lead to the assumption that virtual
teams are not actual teams, actual teams are face-to-face, and anything else is
not real. However, virtual teams are real teams. Like face-to-face teams,
virtual teams are groups of people interacting interdependently towards a
common purpose. Face-to-face teams are bounded by time and space. Virtual teams
use technology to cross boundaries.

Virtual Teams and the
New Leadership Paradigm

According to a Society for Human Resource Management survey
conducted in 2012, almost 50% of American organizations use virtual teams, with
66% of multinational organizations using virtual teams (3). In 2012, Siemens
conducted a study with 320 employees from 9 countries; 79% reported that they
always, or frequently, work with virtual teams. However, only 44% find them to
be as productive as face-to-face teamwork, 40% feel overwhelmed by the
technology, 50% report insufficient trust levels, and 34% report remote team
members “loafing” or not contributing their share (4). While this is a complex
issue, part of the problem is the assumption that leadership is the same for
face-to-face (traditional) and virtual teams.

The Internet requires a new leadership paradigm, one that
integrates leadership with technology. This includes relearning and modifying
prior leadership approaches. This new leadership paradigm must understand
leadership in electronic virtual environments, where leaders act more like
coaches than bosses and use influence instead of coercion.

Avolio et al. (5) coined the term e-leadership to describe
leadership in contexts where technology mediated processes were associated with
individual leadership. E-leadership is a basic change in the way followers and
leaders work together on teams. (6). Avolio et al. (5) defined e-leadership “as
a social process mediated by advanced information technology to produce a
change in attitudes, feelings, thinking, behavior, and performance with
individuals, groups and/or organizations” (page 617). Technology becomes the means
of leadership.

“Virtual teams and networks demand more leadership, not
less” (7). The geographic dispersion and asynchronous communication coupled
with the lack of fact-to-face communication makes it more challenging for
leaders to lead teams. The very nature of virtual teams works against leaders,
requiring e-leaders to invest more time and effort than traditional leaders.

E-Leadership Versus
Traditional Leadership

So what is different about e-leadership and traditional
leadership? The leadership functions are the same, the difference is that one
is mediated face-to-face and the other through technology. It is the mediation
that is different. Unlike traditional face-to-face leaders limited to one
communication channel, e-leaders have multiple channels with varying degrees of
communication richness. E-leaders need to learn to translate face-to-face
messages through appropriate varied technology.

For example, teams are teams. Early on teams need to address
communication, norms, cohesion, performance, expectations, relationships, goals,
and delegation. The needs of teams do not change, it is the environments that
change and determine how to best address these team needs. Whether face-to-face
or virtual, the needs of a team are constant. The way they are addressed is
not. The ways these needs are addressed virtually are identified as
e-leadership.

When a team is created, it begins as a collection of
individuals. The leader is expected to produce a coherent and integrated work
unit. This involves the following characteristics of team excellence (8):

a clear and elevating goal

results-driven structure

competent team members

unified commitment

collaborative climate

standards of excellence

external support and recognition

principled leadership

Without face-to-face meetings, e-leaders are left with a mix
of technology replacements to accomplish these eight characteristics.

Leadership Presence and
Communication Technology

An important feature of e-leadership is knowing how to enact
presence through technology. An e-leader may need to compensate for low
physical presence with increased efforts to build relationships via technology.

There is no “one size fits all” with communication
technology, no single ideal combination of technologies for every virtual team.
Communication can be asynchronous, or synchronous, or both. Available
technologies involve email, chat rooms, social media, wikis, video conferences,
webinars, calendaring and scheduling systems, discussion boards, shared drives,
shared screens, group decision support systems, groupware, web sites, voice
over IP, file and application sharing, telephone, and fax. The list keeps
growing.

E-leaders require more than just communication technology—they
know how to use it. The effective e-leader pairs the technology that is best
for the team, task, and circumstance. Critical pairing variables include (9):

social presence (how well the technology supports
personal connections)

permanence (how well the technology generates a
permanent record for subsequent interaction and decisions)

symbolic meaning (how well the technology
creates a context beyond the meaning of a message), experience with a
technology

available technology training/support

time constraints

There has been some discussion related to which leadership
style works best with virtual teams: behavioral, contingency, situational,
leader-member exchange, transformation….and more (10). Given the diminished
leader presence with virtual teams, traditional leader-centric styles are not
as effective as leadership approaches characterized by the distribution and
delegation of leadership, empowerment and transformation (11). Hierarchical
leadership approaches will not be as effective on virtual teams.

Individuals are often thrust into leading virtual teams with
little training or support. They assume that leadership is leadership; however,
leadership is always about context. Organizations that invest in the long-term
success of virtual teams with an investment in e-leadership could be prepared see
significant benefits.

9. Switzer,
J. S. (2008). Successful communication in virtual teams and the role of the
virtual team leader, In P. Zemliansky (Ed.). Handbook of research on virtual
workplaces and the new nature of business practices. Idea Group.

Kaplan University offers over 180 degree and certificate programs all available to military, veterans, and spouses of active duty members. In addition, several programs have been developed to complement specific military occupations or programs established by the military.

Open College at Kaplan University (OC@KU) offers individualized, affordable education that integrates technology and personalized service to help learners meet their career, academic, and personal goals.